Happy Ever After?
by Aussiepara
Summary: Henry finds a book titled 'Ever After' which tells the story of post-curse Storybrooke and a couple that seemingly escaped the curse. When the main protagonist arrives, the couple's daughter, after a horrific accident Henry enlists the help of Emma, Regina and the rest of the family to convince her of who she's meant to be.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: So here's a random story idea I thought of, this takes place a few days after the the wraith is sent into the portal. In this story Emma and Mary Margaret don't fall into the portal and go to the Enchanted Forest, so that's why they are still around. I think I might see how much interest this gets to see whether I make it a multi-chapter story, it's all up to you guys who read it! Hope you enjoy?**

**Disclaimer: OUAT and the characters do not belong to me.**

* * *

Henry woke up and yawned, trying to protect his eyes from the sun shining into his room. He frowned as he sat up, adjusting to the light and overall trying to wake up. It took him a few minutes before he was actually ready to hop out of bed and once he did he turned and saw his bedside table. He frowned at the book sitting there, for a moment he thought it was his old book, but when he saw the title, 'Ever After' he quickly opened the book and looked inside. He gasped as he turned through the book before yelling out, "Emma!"

Meanwhile downstairs Emma had just taken a sip of her coffee, Mary Margaret and David had gone out early so she was by herself. However she almost spat her coffee back out when she heard Henry call. She instantly got up, swallowing the coffee in her mouth before she ran upstairs, "What is it!?"  
Henry turned around to face her, holding a book in his arms, one that looked almost identical to his first book.  
Emma gasped and quickly walked over, "Is that your old book?"  
Henry shook his head and opened to a page, showing a picture of when he was in hospital and the curse had been broken by Emma.  
"What the hell," Emma took the book from him, flicking through the pages, "this is recent!  
"Would my mum know anything?" Henry looked at the book as Emma looked through it.  
"I don't know…we should go see, she's in here as well."  
"Everyone's in there! Look, there's Ruby and Granny, Mary Margaret and David and Leroy!"  
"Grab your coat kid, we're gonna go visit Regina." Emma closed the book and waited for him to go downstairs.

* * *

Barely ten minutes later, Emma was knocking on Regina's door with Henry by her side. Regina opened her door, hoping that it wasn't another angry mob, her frown faded only slightly when she saw Emma and Henry.  
"We need to talk to you, Regina." Emma brushed past her, walking into house, Henry doing the same.  
"I don't recall inviting you inside, Miss Swan." Regina looked at them before slowly shutting the door behind them.  
"There's another book, mum." Henry walked into the dining room, placing the book on the table.  
Regina frowned again, another of those cursed books, "Show me."  
Henry opened the book to a page, the picture of Regina at the moment the curse broke.  
Regina's eyes widened as she read and looked at the picture, it was indeed recent.  
"Did you already know about this, Regina?" Emma walked in front of Regina, looking her in the eye.  
"I had no clue where the first book came from, just like I have no idea where this one came from either." Regina looked at Emma before looking back down at the book.

The trio spent the better part of an hour reading the book, seeing everything that they had been through recently on paper and then finally, someone else. Well two other people actually, from the Enchanted Forest. It didn't make sense though, Regina thought they looked oddly familiar but at the same time she had most certainly never seen them around the town. Neither Emma nor Henry could place them either, but eventually they managed to find an explanation. As they turned to the page with both Rumplestiltskin and the two Regina put two and two together, and once they had read the deal, all three of them looked up at each other before continuing to read.

Finally they were near to the end of the book, after learning about the pair's time in the Enchanted Forest a bit more it had changed to the world they now lived in, allowing them to see what the couple had been up to during the 28 years of the curse. They had a daughter now, named Lauren and they had settled in Portland, Maine, not very far away at all from Storybrooke, seeing as they could have gone anywhere in the United States. Emma was at a loss, these people had managed to find a way to escape the curse- the same curse that had left her alone all her life-and the rest of the Enchanted Forest had been unable to do the same. It didn't make sense to her at all, but Henry snapped her out of it as he turned to the final page. The page had a picture of a car crash on it, one involving the couple and their daughter; it also happened to say that it had happened at 11:30am, today, the time now was just after 11:50am.

* * *

Lauren groaned slightly as she opened her eyes. Her head was pounding and when she held a hand to her head it came back wet and sticky. Her eyes widened as she saw the blood and it took her a minute before the events that had just taken place clicked into her brain. If she wasn't in shock she would've screamed when she saw her parents. Even though her brain went into overdrive she still knew she needed help. She cried out in agony when she opened her door, before unceremoniously falling out onto the ground. She should have stayed in the car, because now she was lying on the ground, somewhere in the woods with the blackness seeping in.

* * *

Emma couldn't help but think in a part of her mind, that perhaps she was imagining all of this. Maybe she'd gone crazy; it wouldn't be that far of a stretch. After all she was sitting in the passenger seat of Regina's car, heading towards the outskirts of the town just because it was written in some book. Also she was sitting in _Regina's _car, not her bug. That had happened after Regina refused to even lay eyes on the car. They stopped when they reached the border of the town, Regina requesting Henry stay in the car, causing him to protest until Emma backed Regina up, the crash looked nasty and Emma didn't want Henry seeing anything horrific. Henry begrudgingly stayed in the car as Emma and Regina walked followed the tyre tracks into the woods.

Regina was the first to spot the car, "Down there!"  
Emma ran down the slope, Regina following behind her closely, inspecting the occupants of the front seat, she couldn't see their chests rising and falling but she could clearly see that the car was in bad shape, "Regina! Call an ambulance!"  
Regina quickly obliged, grabbing her phone out of her pocket as she ran back up to the road.  
Emma ran round to the other side of the car, stopping when she saw the girl lying on the ground, she quickly dropped to her knees, "Hello? Can you hear me? Squeeze my hands if you can hear me!" Emma wasn't that surprised at the lack of response so she quickly turned her head to the side, listening to see if the girl was still breathing while watching her chest. Lauren's breathing was still there, it just didn't sound that good, she also didn't look that good either.

* * *

Emma was glad when she finally heard the ambulance, it had only been a few minutes but it felt like hours. She had run back and forth between the car and the girl lying on the ground, looking for any of them to move, but the girl was unconscious and her parents were that or dead. The latter seeming more likely the longer Emma watched them. The paramedics focused their attention on Lauren as the rescue crew started to extract the couple in the car. Once they were both out they were loaded onto the ambulances, Emma walking back over to Regina's car, Henry looking at both of them wide eyed. "Let's follow them to the hospital, Regina."  
Regina glared at Emma, she couldn't believe the woman thought she could just order her around, "Don't think this temporary…alliance means you can order me around, Miss Swan"  
"Regina, can we please not argue and just go to the hospital."  
Regina continued to glare at Emma before she turned her car on, waiting for the ambulances to rush past before she pulled away from the edge of the road.  
"Did they look like the people in the book?" Henry piped up from the back seat.  
Emma kept her eyes glued to the ambulance in front, "Yeah kid, they did."

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**A/N: Follow, favourite or review if you wish! Follows and Reviews would be much appreciated to let me see whether I should make this a multi-chaptered story! Thanks for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Here's chapter two! I decided to continue! This chapter is a bit of a fill in and rather short, hopefully you guys like it? It answers a few questions that you may have but a lot more of Lauren will be revealed in later chapters I guess. Thanks for the reviews, favourites and follows, I greatly appreciate them! Hope you enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own OUAT!**

* * *

It was the next morning before Lauren finally woke up. "It's too early to be up…" Lauren groaned as she slowly woke up, rubbing her eyes. That was her first mistake, her entire side hurt-a lot. Then she noticed the monotonous beeping noises in the background, something was taped to the back of her hand as well. To be honest she felt like someone had taken a pillow, filled it with cement, and then decided to have a pillow fight with her. In other words, everything hurt. When her eyes had finally adjusted to the light she realised that there were three people standing by her bed, one was obviously a doctor. The other two were most definitely not; the bright red jacket and the business looking attire that they were wearing gave it away. She put a hand to her head as she looked at them; she had the worst headache ever. They all just looked at her before the doctor stepped forward.

"I'm Dr. Whale, how are you feeling?" Dr. Whale looked at Lauren.  
"Okay I get to ask questions first...where the hell am I?" Lauren just stared at the doctor, ignoring the pain in her side.  
"You're in Storybrooke General Hospital, kid." Emma spoke up from where she was standing.  
Lauren laughed at the name before quickly stopping and holding her side, "Ow!"  
"You might want to take it easy, Miss. Your ribs are cracked."  
"Again? Who did I get into a fight with this time?  
Regina raised an eyebrow, "You were in a car crash."  
Lauren looked at Regina, "Is that supposed to be funny? Because it's not."  
"No it is not supposed to be funny, it's quite serious actually." Regina looked at Dr. Whale.  
"I don't remember any car accident," Lauren frowned, "can I see my parents?"  
Regina and Emma looked at Dr. Whale before Emma spoke up, "We'll be back in a minute."  
Lauren watched them leave the room, leaning back into her pillow, she didn't remember any accident, but she didn't remember getting into a fight either.

* * *

Dr. Whale was the first to come back and Lauren looked at him, "Sore…"  
"What?" Whale frowned as he looked at Lauren.  
"In answer to your question…I feel sore." She grimaced slightly as she took a deep breath, wincing slightly as her ribs moved.  
"I'll get the nurse to up your dosage of painkillers then, but we need to discuss your injuries and your parents."  
"Let me have it." Lauren slowly sat up a bit more before looking back at him.  
"Well, you took a hard blow to the head which would be why you seem to be experiencing amnesia. Your ribs are cracked as well, which if they've been broken before would explain why. You've got quite a few bruises and lacerations as well as the car rolled down the slope."  
"Sounds like fun…" Lauren sighed as she looked at the ceiling.  
"And your parents…were unfortunately DOA." Whale watched Lauren carefully.  
"DOA? What does that mean?" Lauren opened her eyes again to look at him.  
"They were dead on arrival."

Lauren opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out. Her parents were….dead? This was obviously some nightmare, she was in some place named Storybrooke, she didn't remember the accident and now her parents were dead! It had to be her imagination playing some sick trick on her. Well she hoped it was, because as much as they annoyed her sometimes they couldn't just leave her alone. She didn't have any other family! She didn't have any aunts or uncles or cousins. She didn't even have grandparents! Her parents were the only people who she could call family and she didn't have a clue what she would do without them. She was too young to live by herself, she couldn't move in to a friend's place because she didn't have any and she couldn't imagine becoming a foster kid. She was too busy caught up in her thoughts to realise Dr. Whale was staring at her. "What did you say?" Lauren swallowed the lump in her throat and looked up at him.  
"I wanted to know your name." Whale gave her a small smile.  
"It's Lauren, Lauren Everett. Can you leave me alone now, please?" Lauren looked up at him pleadingly.  
Dr. Whale nodded, "I'll send a nurse in."  
Lauren slowly turned over in her bed, being careful not to move her ribs. She didn't want anyone to see how much she was crying.

* * *

Emma and Regina had been waiting outside, looking in the window as Whale was talking to the girl.  
"What did she say?" Regina grabbed Dr. Whale's arm as he came out, making sure he didn't forget to tell them what she had said.  
"Not much, I just found out that her name's Lauren Everett and that's about it."  
"How did she take the news?" Emma looked back into Lauren's room.  
"Well she didn't burst into tears so that's a good thing. Look I need to get a nurse so if you're done asking questions I'll be off." Whale waited a few moments to see if either of them would ask something else before he walked off.  
Regina watched him walk off, frowning as he disappeared from view, "That man is hopeless."  
"He's a good doctor." Emma looked at Regina.  
"When you're the patient, anyone else and eye contact is far from likely."  
Emma snorted, causing Regina to glare at her, "Sorry.."  
"We should go see Henry. He'll be dying to know everything." Regina watched as a nurse walked into the room before she brushed past Emma.  
"Right…" Emma quickly followed after Regina; after all she didn't want to keep the Queen waiting.

Lauren heard the footsteps behind her as she sniffed; she guessed it was the nurse that Dr. Whale had said he would send. She heard rather than saw the nurse as she did her job. She didn't want to look at the nurse; it would only remind her of her mother. Her mum was a nurse herself, well was. She had already soaked half of her pillow; she didn't need to burst out into a fresh load of tears just because she saw a nurse. She closed her eyes as she turned her head in the nurse's direction, "Thanks…" She didn't see the nurse smile at her before she left, but it wasn't long before the pain started to diminish. At least now she could sleep, get away from the nightmare that had become her life.

* * *

Henry was back at the Charming family's apartment, sitting in Emma's room reading the book. He frowned as it started to glow again and he quickly dropped it and moved away. It was only momentarily like that and he slowly picked it up again. It didn't look any different, but he quickly flicked through all the pages, making sure nothing had changed. It was only once he got to the end that he realised what had happened. A new page had appeared; this one had a picture of Lauren in her hospital bed, her eyes closed as she was sleeping. Henry skim read the page before hearing the door open and Emma and Regina's voice. He practically bolted down the stairs with the book; this meant that it was happening, which meant that this girl really was supposed to give them their happy endings. He only hoped she would believe, but he had all the proof that was needed, right?

* * *

**Well, where will Lauren stay now? Do you guys have any suggestions or requests? I have someone in mind but you guys can have input! Write a review, favourite or follow if you wish! Thanks for reading! **


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Okay, I'm back (please don't kill me). I can't believe I made you all wait that long for an update! It might not be as long as some but that was the longest I've ever gone without updating! I was so busy! But now I have updated and I have this small chapter. It needs to be done though and it will be the last chapter set entirely in the hospital. Thanks for all the reviews, favourites and follows, they are greatly appreciated! Hope you enjoy?**

**Disclaimer: I don't own OUAT!**

* * *

Lauren woke up the next morning, facing the window that allowed her a view of the outside. It was just taunting her, she couldn't just leave without anyone noticing. One, because she was attached to so many leads it wasn't funny and removing them would be a nightmare, two, she'd have to raid the hospital's painkiller supplies and three, because the women that had been in her room yesterday looked serious. It must be a small town if they were involved, whoever they were, it wasn't like she was a celebrity, she was a 15 year old teenager, who may or may not have had a stint in a Juvenile Detention Centre a few months back. To be fair it wasn't her fault, well maybe the simple assault charges but the theft was not hers. Besides, they deserved the punches because they were the ones accusing her of theft. She shook away the thoughts as she tried to remember the accident, only to start to get a headache. She tried again, only to be snapped out of her thoughts by the same woman from yesterday knocking on her door.

Emma walked in only moments after she had knocked not even waiting to see if the girl was awake, let alone wanting visitors. When she walked in, Lauren was slowly sitting up taking deep breaths as she moved. "How's it going, kid?" Emma crossed her arms over her chest as she walked up to the side of the bed.  
"It's Lauren not 'kid'." Lauren gave Emma a brief glare.  
"Well Lauren, I'm Emma and I'm also the Sheriff of Storybrooke. I was the one that found you and your family." Emma took a seat in the chair next to the bed.  
"Well thanks, I guess."  
"Do you remember anything about the accident?" Emma leant forward slightly.  
"Look, I'm running low on painkillers so I don't really feel like talking at the moment." Lauren took a deep breath once she had finished her sentence, closing her eyes.  
"Well I'll go get a nurse and then I'll be right back." Emma got up, walking out the door.

* * *

Lauren opened her eyes once she heard the door open, that was pretty quick. She opened her eyes only to be greeted by the other woman from yesterday. "Oh…are you the Deputy or someone?"  
Regina chuckled and walked forward shaking her head, "No, I'm the Mayor of this town."  
Lauren's eyes widened, "Really? This must be a small town…"  
"Indeed it is, but as the Mayor of this town I have to make sure everything runs smoothly; including your recovery. But please, call me Regina." Regina smiled at Lauren.  
Lauren frowned slightly before she turned her head in the direction of the door as Emma walked back in, closely followed by a nurse.  
"Oh, Regina you're here." Emma moved out of the way of the nurse as she directed her attention to Regina.  
"Yes I am, Sheriff." Regina briefly looked at Emma before returning her gaze to Lauren.  
Lauren noticed that she was now the centre of attention again and she shifted uncomfortably before pain went shooting through her ribs, she winced, causing the nurse to speed up what she was doing.

A few minutes later and the nurse had left and Lauren was now slowly feeling the numbing effects of the painkillers seeping in. She started to close her eyes, thankful that it helped with the pain, only for Emma to call her name. She quickly opened her eyes again, "Sorry..."  
Emma exchanged a look with Regina, "Quite a record you have for a fifteen year old, Lauren."  
Lauren winced and the other women in the room could tell that it wasn't from the pain this time, "Look, I can explain-"  
"You were in Juvie for three weeks, charged with assault and theft. You landed three guys in the hospital that time and apparently before that you landed two girls and another guy in separate incidents. Could you explain that please?" Emma ignored Regina's look as she stared at Lauren.  
"The theft charges weren't even mine and the four guys that ended up in the hospital were the actual guys who did it!"  
"How did you break one of their arms, let alone land them in the hospital to begin with?" Emma continued.

Lauren shrugged, "I improvised; besides my parents were the ones who let me take self-defence classes. And, it certainly wasn't the first fight I've been in, meaning the two girls and the other guy, and they're only the ones that were reported..."  
"You improvised?" Regina looked at Lauren in disbelief.  
"I didn't grow up in the best area! It's dog eat dog out there! I mean what was I supposed to do?"  
"Be the bigger person and walk away." Regina leant back in her chair, this girl was just like the woman standing next to her.  
"Why does it matter anyway? I'm just going to end up in the foster system for the next three years now and I'll need it there!"  
"You don't just go into the foster system! Surely you have family or friends that would be will-"  
Emma was cut off by Lauren, "I don't! I don't have family! I don't have grandparents, I don't have Uncles and Aunts, I don't have cousins! The only family I had were my parents! I don't have any friends either, and the friends of my parents would definitely not want a kid that ended up in a Juvenile Detention Centre!"  
Emma frowned, maybe Henry would have the answer to this in his book, after all new pages were appearing every day. She turned and walked out of the room, without so much as saying goodbye to Regina or Lauren.

"Was it something I said?" Lauren turned her head and looked at Regina.  
Regina leant forward, giving Lauren's hand a gentle squeeze and what she hoped was a reassuring smile, "She spent her whole childhood in the system, bit of a touchy subject for her."  
Lauren looked at Regina's hand, wondering why the woman was acting like she cared, "That makes sense." Lauren slowly pulled her hand out from underneath the woman, a bit put off by the smile that didn't quite reach the woman's eyes.  
Regina's expression darkened for a moment before she slowly stood up, "Well, I must be getting back to work. The Sheriff and I will be keeping in contact with the hospital, so Dr. Whale will be keeping us updated on your recovery if we're unable to visit."  
Lauren nodded, "Sounds good." She definitely didn't mean that, the sooner she got out of here the better.  
Regina turned and walked out, softly closing the door behind her. Emma really didn't need to even worry about the foster system; the girl would be coming home with her. Because, if anyone deserved a Happy Ending it was her, and if the girl was supposed to give people that, she would be the first to receive it.

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**Hope you enjoyed! Write a review, favourite or follow if you wish! All of you who guessed Regina are right! Until next chapter! (which will hopefully be up a lot quicker than this was!)**


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